1609-1700.] EXPEDITION OF CHAMPLAIN. 67 



at length, as night was closing in, they descried a 

 band of the Iroquois in their large canoes of elm 

 bark approaching through the gloom. Wild yells 

 from either side announced the mutual discovery. 

 The Iroquois hastened to the shore, and all night 

 long the forest resounded with their discordant war- 

 songs and fierce whoops of defiance. Day dawned, 

 and the fight began. Bounding from tree to tree, 

 the Iroquois pressed forward to the attack ; but 

 when Champlain advanced from among the Algon- 

 quins, and stood full in sight before them, with his 

 strange attire, his shining breastplate, and features 

 unlike their own, — when, they saw the flash of his 

 arquebuse, and beheld two of their chiefs fall dead, 

 — they could not contain their terror, but fled for 

 shelter into the depths of the wood. The Algon- 

 quins pursued, slaying many in the flight, and the 

 victory was complete. 



Such was the first collision between the white 

 men and the Iroquois ; and Champlain flattered 

 himself that the latter had learned for the future 

 to respect the arms of France. He was fatally 

 deceived. The Iroquois recovered from their 

 terrors, but they never forgave the injury ; and yet 

 it would be unjust to charge upon Champlain the 

 origin of the desolating wars which w^ere soon to 

 scourge the colony. The Indians of Canada, friends 

 and neighbors of the French, had long been har- 

 assed by inroads of the fierce confederates, and 

 under any circumstances the French must soon 

 have become parties to the quarrel. 



Whatever may have been its origin, the war 



